How to validate your product idea before you burn budget

You’ve got an idea. Maybe even some funding. The wheels are turning, you're speaking to designers, scoping features, thinking about launch.

But there’s one question that keeps hanging over everything:

What if no one actually wants this?

It’s a quiet fear, and an incredibly common one. Founders come to us with all kinds of great ideas, but deep down, they’re worried about launching to crickets. Not because the idea is bad, but because they’re unsure if it’s the right version of the idea. The right price point. The right audience. The right problem to lead with.

And when you’re staring down a £50k–£100k+ product development, that uncertainty is a big deal.

The good news? You don’t need to guess. You don’t need to spend months building something just to see if it works. There are things you can do to find out early with speed, clarity, and confidence.

Here are three fast, proven ways to validate your product idea before you commit serious time and money.

1. Pre-sell it before you build it

One of the best forms of validation is also the simplest: get someone to say “yes” with their wallet or signature.

We’ve seen founders spend months building a product before they realise they could’ve just asked their target users: “Would you pay for this if I made it?” It sounds obvious, but most don’t do it. Instead, they assume interest equals intent, but those two things aren’t the same.

A real validation signal could be:

Someone offering to pay for early access

A letter of intent (LOI) from a business customer

A commitment to trial the product on launch

A waitlist sign-up with strong motivation

This is especially important if your product is in a space with established alternatives. It’s not enough to ask “is there a problem?” you need to understand how much pain people are in, and whether they’d actually switch to your solution.

Bonus tip: Make sure you're asking the right people. If you’re planning to launch in the US, don't only speak to people in the UK. We’ve seen founders run early research locally, then realise too late that different regions have entirely different behaviours, pricing tolerance, or workflows.

Why it matters:

Getting a “yes I’d pay for this” from even 2 or 3 people shows you’re not just solving a problem, you’re solving their problem. And that’s where traction begins.

2. Test the idea with a landing page and £100 in ads

Want to know if your idea resonates in the real world?

Set up a one-page site. Spend £100 on targeted ads. Watch what happens.

This is one of the easiest, fastest ways to measure interest from strangers, people with no emotional bias or personal loyalty.

Here’s how it works:

Write a clear value proposition (“Here’s what this product does and why it’s useful.”)

Create a simple landing page with a sign-up form or waitlist CTA

Run Google or Meta ads targeted at relevant keywords or demographics

Track how many people click, stay, and take action

You’ll quickly see what messaging works, what problem resonates, and whether anyone is actively looking for this kind of solution.

We’ve even run this test ourselves for internal product ideas. One campaign with just £100 of ad spend surfaced valuable market signals, not just about the idea’s popularity, but about which angle to lead with.

Why it matters:

This strips away assumptions. Instead of building based on what you think people want, you’re testing what they respond to in practice, fast, cheap, and risk-free.

3. Prototype the outcome, not the full product

Founders often think they need to build a “usable” product to test their idea. But in reality, you only need to help people visualise what success looks like.

A clickable prototype, a pitch deck, a user journey map, these can all be used to test:

Does this product solve the problem clearly enough?

Do people understand how it works?

Would they choose this over their current solution?

Would they pay for this?

One founder we worked with used a simple Figma prototype to test feature assumptions. In one round of feedback, they learned that their “hero feature” was something users didn’t really care about and a secondary feature was actually far more valuable. That insight completely reshaped their roadmap.

Don’t forget: Good prototyping isn't just about UX. It’s about defining your target user, your pricing expectations, and your go-to-market assumptions early.

You don’t need a product to validate a concept, you need clarity on your users, their behaviours, their spending habits, and their motivations.

Why it matters:

A prototype lets you find out what people feel about the idea without spending money building the wrong version of it.

And when people say “I’d use this,” or even better, “I need this,” you’ll know you’re close.

Bonus insight: the importance of research

You don’t just need to know that people like your idea, you need to know who you’re targeting, what they’re willing to pay, what alternatives they’re already using, and how competitive your offer is in that context.

We’ve seen founders skip basic steps like market research or price testing, and end up building something impressive that no one adopts. Not because the product was bad but because they hadn’t defined what success looked like early on.

What you’re really looking for

Nice feedback isn’t enough. You want to hear:

Yes, I’d pay for this

Yes, I’d use this over what I’m doing now

Yes, I’d sign up today

Yes, I want to be first in line when this goes live

Anything less is a maybe.

And maybes don’t launch products, they delay them.

The red flag to watch for

If the only people validating your idea are your friends, your developer, or people who “really like the concept” but won’t commit, that’s a red flag.

It’s easy to build a product around false signals.

We’ve seen it firsthand, founders with amazing vision, great branding, and a clear mission, but no real validation. Six months and hundreds of thousands of pounds later, they’re rebuilding or rethinking from scratch.

Don't let bias, even well-meaning bias guide your build.

You’re relying on validation from friends, family, or your tech team

You haven’t done any pricing research, you’re guessing

You’re running surveys in the wrong market

You’re asking people if they like the idea, but not if they’d buy it

You’ve written a full spec before doing a single customer interview

These don’t mean your product will fail but they’re strong signs you’re building on shaky ground.

Don’t build in the dark

These validation techniques aren’t about slowing you down, they’re about speeding you up in the right direction.

When you’ve got a smart idea, a bit of funding, and the drive to move, it’s tempting to jump straight into developing. But taking a week or two to validate early could save you six months and £60k later on.

You don’t need to guess.

You don’t need to write 10,000 lines of code just to find out if your idea works.

And you definitely don’t need to waste your budget learning lessons you could have found out in a week.

Ready to validate your product and build it right the first time?

Contic Launchpad is designed for founders who don’t just want to build something, they want to build the right thing.

We help you define your audience, test your assumptions, and get clear signals from the market, before you commit serious time and money to development.

With a fixed cost, money-back guarantee after Discovery, and a process built for scalability, Launchpad gives you everything you need, from customer research and defining success to prototypes, user testing, and full product delivery.

You bring the idea.

We’ll help you prove it, shape it, and launch it, fast.

Explore Launchpad